


Sparring Practice

by MegumitheGreat



Series: Shameless Mitchentine what-ifs, inserts, and fixes [7]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Insert, One Shot, One-off, Sparring practice, Training, two weeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 00:50:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18713122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegumitheGreat/pseuds/MegumitheGreat
Summary: Between the time Clementine and AJ return to Ericson and Lilly's assault on the school, Mitch decides he wants to learn how Clementine learned to fight





	Sparring Practice

**Author's Note:**

> Eyyyy, another one-off just because I wanted more Clem and Mitch interaction and that two-week time lapse in the game could have given us something. If you choose to burn Ms. Martin, he's a soft boy and I want to see that face more! "We need you." DAMN STRAIGHT, MITCH. And considering my other ship is a very very NOT liked one, I at least just want to contribute to this tiny ship because it would be cute IF MITCH LIVED AND WAS AN OPTION.

“Clem, come here for a sec,” Mitch beckoned down the hall. 

The girl, who had been fighting for her life ever since the day she had to put down the only friend she had until the very end, had interested him after she returned to Ericson with a severely wounded AJ approximately one week ago. Sure, he had been cold to her, hostile even, but she was skilled with a knife. She had successfully disarmed him without injuring him before leaving, and she had held her own against the walkers trapped in the greenhouse. She hadn’t tried to make amends with him, but she understood that Marlon’s death had rattled him as much as it did Louis…granted Louis wasn’t as violent as he was. But he couldn’t not be impressed with her fighting, and though she seemed to imply that she told him so, he surprisingly felt somewhat guilty for giving her a hard time.

Now he was simply wanting to ask her a few questions. He was the bomb expert and claimed to be good in a fight. He wanted to know how Clem—a girl smaller than him—had learned the way of the knife. How did she know how to fight walkers? How did she know how to shoot guns and arrows with the acumen of a sharpshooter?

Clementine met with him just outside the school. They sat together on the couches around one of the firepits. It was his favorite place to whittle wood into spears and stakes, and it was a good place to think.

And that was just what her answer was.

“So you want to know how I fight?” she asked rather dubiously. She was clearly still not entirely comfortable talking so casually. She did, however, recall that he accepted her after they secretly burned the corpse of the nurse that had helped the kids before her untimely demise. “Well, a good defense makes a good offense. You have to think and learn to watch your enemy.”

“What kind of video game bullshit is that?” Mitch spat. Clementine grimaced at him. “Sorry. Okay, Ms. Know-It-All, so how do you do that?”

“Watch, wait, and never lose eye contact. Look at the enemy as a whole.”

Such advice was odd. Waiting took time. Time was something they had very little of.

“It doesn’t hurt to think about what you’ll do before you act. Come on, I can show you.”

Clementine motioned for him to stand before her. Of course, using actual knives would be dangerous, but what better way to prepare for Delta’s attack than to practice as if they were there armed and ready to kill? She asked that he pretended to be Lilly and to charge at her with his shiv. She warned him that she would going to get rough, but the eighteen-year-old simply laughed it off. He did as she asked, charging at her with the knife ready to bury itself into her head. He even let out a battle cry.

One, two, three. She kicked him in the knee; bending it in a direction it wasn’t supposed to go; swept his feet to knock him off-balance, and snatched the knife from his hand. Mitch wasn’t as resilient as the monster that was Lilly, and she knew that the woman would recover much faster than him thanks to her military training. Furthermore, if she let him practice on her, who was to say that he wouldn’t actually break her leg? If she got injured before the fight, everyone in the school would be little more than sitting ducks. She had to offer, though. It was only fair.

“Okay, do you get what to do?” she asked.

“Fuck, if I can even stand,” he growled. “You’re the perfect height to kneecap.”

“Maybe, but Lilly is taller and stronger. When you’re up against her, you’ll be the perfect height, too.”

He suddenly looked away from her, a tinge of pink on his cheeks. “You sure you want me to do that to you? I’m not gentle.” He hid his face in shame. “Oh, god, did I really just say that?”

“We can go through the motions.”

She looked around for a dummy before she walked over to a spear with a walker head impaled on it. She directed him slowly with his aching knee in mind. She knew she would have to help him out. 

After a few rounds, Mitch seemed to understand what to do. Watch his opponent. Kick out the knee. Sweep the feet. Take the weapon. He repeated the steps over and over until he felt like he could do it almost as quickly as Clementine. Her small stature put her at an advantage, but his strength was his. His knee still hurt, and the pain was surely exacerbated with the practice.

“Goddamn, you really got me,” he said, as if restraining his growls like some dog learning to trust a new person…like Rosie, Marlon’s dog.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Clementine apologized. “I think the first aid kit is somewhere, so I can patch it up.”

“Stupid, I’m not bleeding. I’m no weakling.”

“Yeah, but at least use some Cold Fire to help the pain. We can’t afford anyone to get sick or hurt.”

“Says the one who did it!”

Clementine crossed his arms. She tapped her foot, a habit she had picked up when AJ disobeyed her or threw a tantrum. Mitch was just like that—an angry child throwing a fit—but for some reason he calmed down.

“I’m…sorry,” he reluctantly apologized.

“Wow.”

“What?”

“You…apologized.”

“Yeah, I’m not a complete asshole.”

“No, I guess you’re not.” She held out her hand. “Let’s go inside and put something on your knee.”

He pushed her hand away not because he didn’t want her help but because everyone else was outside working on their stuff. If they saw that he was holding hands with her, he would _never_ hear the end of it, especially from Louis and Willy. He would turn into a walker and still be made fun of. Instead, he tried to match Clementine’s pace, which made her slow down for him when the discomfort was evident on his face. They made it to the couch upstairs inside only after Mitch finally accepted her help. Since no one was there to see them, he didn’t mind so much. 

Having Mitch lean on her, depend on her—it felt kind of nice. It wasn’t a burden, and even if he smelled like propane, fertilizer, and sweat; Clementine didn’t seem to mind it at all.

The first aid kit was in Violet’s office—formerly Marlon’s—and while the kids in the school were still on edge with her there, she was sure at this point that Mitch would have to vouch for her.

“Alright,” Clementine sighed. “How are we going to do this?”

“W-What do you mean by that?” Mitch stammered. He slouched on the couch, his perpetual scowl on his face.

“I mean, do you want me to try and roll the pant leg up, or try something else?”

“I am _not_ dropping my pants. Not in front of a girl.”

“I’m not saying you have to. Just…it might hurt if I roll up the leg, okay?”

“I can’t tell if you’re trying to get me to do that or not. Whatever, just get it over with.”

Clementine got to work rolling up the pant leg to expose his leg a little past the knee. It wasn’t terribly swollen, which led her to believe that it only got twisted. It would probably feel better in a few hours or a day at most. She opened the container, the smell of menthol and eucalyptus filling her nose. She scooped up a liberal amount, slathering it everywhere on the knee. On the sides, above it, under it, back of it, and on the joint itself. Once she was done, she unfurled the pant leg.

“There we go,” Clementine said with a triumphant smile. “Does it feel better?”

“You just put the ointment on it. I highly doubt that it’s already working.”

“Like I said, we can’t afford to have anyone not in top form.”

“Yeah, yeah. Look, I appreciate it, okay? Does that make you happy?” He stood up, his knee now feeling stiff.

“Sure, but I’d be happier if you’d just sit for a while.”

“They could come any minute, and I’m not letting those motherfuckers hurt anyone here. They’re not getting the jump on us.”

Clementine had to admire how protective he was of everyone. He was one of the older kids, and those they looked up to him for the most part, he was still too childish and immature to protect them now. He had to be ready. He still had a lot to learn, and a part of her hoped that he would make it through the battle so she could teach him. And, as a byproduct of their quality time training, she hoped to get to know him more.

As interesting as he found her, he had a roaring anger in him that lit his flame and kept him going that piqued her interest. A mirror of herself, she felt a camaraderie with him.

“I feel the same way,” she told him. He looked into her eyes, a fierce determination to fight or die trying burning., deep in them. A refusal to give up. “I know Lilly, and I won’t let her take you or AJ or anyone else here.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. She’s one tough bitch, right? She’ll put up one helluva fight.”

“I know, which is why I’m going to fight back no matter what it takes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just saying, it wold have been fun. Probably not as suggestive(?) but fun to train with him. And I can't be the only one interested in seeing him do something other than plant the bomb after Ruby said he was good in a fight. Let me kick his ass!


End file.
